Please Pray

I'm sorry that I haven't gotten this out earlier...it's just been a whirlwind these past two days. Josh took a spill down the stairs early yesterday morning, and broke his leg/ankle. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that it was immediately obvious what had happened. Because of the excruciating pain and the fact that the little ones were sleeping soundly upstairs (it was a tremendous blessing that they didn't wake up to see what was going on!), I called 911 around 5:45 in the morning, and by 10:50 Josh was in surgery with an excellent foot and ankle orthopaedic surgeon. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

As I ran down the stairs when it happened, Josh was screaming that he had broken his ankle, and he had severe deformities of his foot and lower leg. The firetrucks and amulances (all three of them) were here within a few minutes. They did what they could to stabilize the injury, and they started an IV right there in the foyer to give him morphine because he started to go into shock. My next door neighbor came to stay with the kids while I left right behind Josh for the hospital. Once there, they did x-rays and saw that Josh had dislocated each bone in his ankle and had broken his tibia and fibia in four places. They were having a hard time managing his pain(he was maxed out on morphine), and they were concerned that one of the bones was going to tear through the skin, so the ortho. doctor came down to do a reduction under conscious sedation. The pain was much more manageable at that point, and he went in for surgery shortly after that.

Once the doctor got in his ankle, he realized the injury was even more severe than he had originally thought. So the surgery took longer than expected, but he said it was very successful. Here are the stats from the surgery and Josh's recovery:
six incisions
1 metal plate
12 screws (two of which will be removed in 10-12 weeks)
2 weeks out of work
6-8 weeks on a walker and crutches
8 weeks without driving
and several months of physical therapy

There are several additional factors that play into this scenario (I'll tell more about that later), but please pray for all of us during this time. I have so many specifics to pray about, but I'll leave it at that for now. I don't know when I'll be able to write an update...maybe tomorrow if we get to go home. God has already answered several specific prayers, and I know He'll give us everything we need during this time. Please pray that we'll remember that when we get discouraged!

We don't have access to e-mail while we're at the hospital, but we have our phones. Love to all, and thanks for your prayers and for the help so many of you have already given to us!! You have ministered to us in countless ways, and we really do thank God for you (Phil. 1:3).